I finally listened to the entirety of David Cook's album. Woah....it's so good. I'm actually speechless, and I like to think of myself as a pretty objective fan in most respects.

Silly Kruss!

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LOL! Well, when you consider there are die-hard fans who insist they won't listen to ANY other music other than David's, then yes, I am extremely objective by comparison. I love music too much to narrow it down to one artist or genre.

Haven't listened to any of it yet, but interested to hear from Cook fans and AI watchers what the story is here - same crew who played/wrote/produced the last CD, or anything different?

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Totally different crew: Matt Serletic is the producer, his band played on all tracks but one (ironically, the track two of them co-wrote with David), he and his band do all the vocals except for the boys choir on two of the songs, there are orchestral/string arrangements on this one, heavy piano, and so many other things about it that are different from the first album. Also, David co-wrote everything on the album, and he and various co-writers wrote over 80 songs for this album, 14 of which we'll hear on the CD (there are 2 bonus tracks that AOL is not streaming), plus an EP of 5 acoustic versions.

Okay, my review as I posted it last night to my Twitter buds. Pardon the overexuberance, but I was literally struck at how beautiful this album is.

I listened to this with big headphones on, the lights out in my room except for the twilight coming in through the window, and my eyes closed, so that I could really absorb the music.

Along with most of you, I'd heard the few songs that had been previewed at concerts, and the Walmart Soundcheck. I liked the songs, some I loved, but at the same time I didn't hear anything that was too *different*, ya know? I mean, David's voice will carry any song to be one that I'd like, but that doesn't mean I love every one of his songs.

And then I watched/read everyone who'd heard the CD squeeing all day long, and please forgive me, but part of me hoped with all my might that it wasn't just fangirlishness taking over everyone.

You know what I mean. Some people will love everything their favorite artist does, which is fine, but at the same time doesn't always carry with it absolute objectivity. So as I saw everyone's reactions today, I was hoping that what they were saying was because the album was REALLY good, not just because it was from their favorite artist.

But this is good. This is GREAT. I am completely gobsmacked. Each song that I hadn't heard yet is so different from the other, so completely not run-of-the-mill, so FRESH.

And just when I think there can't be anything more that I'd love about this, he had to go all Steve Perry on me with Goodbye To The Girl. Thank you for the throwback to Frontiers and Street Talk, David. This girl is delighted.

And then, Rapid Eye Movement. I was expecting a song that rocked, the Kiss on the Neck of this album. I wasn't expecting a song that felt like I was surrounded by the evening tide, crashing, swirling, quieting, then unexpectedly crashing again, and finally finishing with the remains of the wave dancing along the shore and pirouetting back into the ocean.

This Loud Morning is absolutely amazing. Well worth the wait, but when genius burns for that long, what else can be expected?

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I was seriously expecting the album to be pretty much the same as the first one, given things I'd heard from behind-the-scenes of how his record company was being. That's why I had such a strong reaction to it - because it's not like the first album. It's also not an album full of singles, but a record as a whole, the way all records used to be back when. It's true that the majority of the songs are mid-tempo, but to me there are so many other layers involved that I didn't find this to be repetitious.

I just really loved it. Was totally surprised by it, and can't wait to get the CD in my hand.

I'm glad I'll be off work on Tuesday, I can watch the livestream from the Best Buy event. Unfortuantely, they weren't able to iron out whatever technical difficulties they were having to also livestream the Paramount Hotel event, but RCA promised they'd film that and put it up on DCO.

And then the next step is touring, and I'm so glad David is seeking to be an opener or mid show act with a bigger band. He needs more fans outside the Idol bubble, especially guy fans. I think it would really help him with some good exposure.

I took pictures (some of them kinda decent) at the Milwaukee show. For the Chicago show next week, I plan to just relax and enjoy the music without my camera. But the show in Milwaukee was really amazing, soundcheck was fun (we got three songs with a lot of joking around among the band), and I am still laughing my arse off at the photo I got with the guys. They're nuts.

p.s. During soundcheck, David asked us for song suggestions. Someone yelled out, "Billie Jean!" and got a very stern stare-down from David in return (all in jest, of course). The stare-down intensified as someone else near her then yelled out, "Magic Rainbow!"

Okay, so we only had five songs from the new album, the only one I can tell you for sure was Last Goodbye, which is acceptable live. The other four were and I can't believe he closed with such a downer number, especially right after kicking all kinds of ass on Muse's Stockholm Syndrome. DAMN.

We had Heroes mixed with Oasis' Champagne Supernova , Come Back to Me, Kiss on the Neck , Light On, Mr. Sensitive, and I think I'm forgetting one more but the thing that made the entire night worth it for me and will allow me to forgive him (somewhat) for the craptacular new album was his awesome cover of Whitesnake's Here I Go Again.

He clearly loves the harder rock stuff. I wonder if he's not allowed to put that on his albums.

He opened and closed as he did the album. He's not doing that at all shows, many he's closing with Fade Into Me. I'm glad you got the Stockholm Syndrome cover. Wasn't that amazing? I'm not a huge fan of Here I Go Again, but I did get that during soundcheck last week, then got Rock and Roll by Zep during the show. lI wish you could have heard that, including the amazing drum solo by Kyle leading into a tease of Whole Lotta Love. I'm hoping for Stockholm Syndrome at Tuesday night's show, or The Hand That Feeds which is another that he's been doing as a cover.

What did you think of the new, harder intro to Mr. Sensitive? I'm glad he abandoned Movin' Out, which was the first cover he was doing early on in the tour. Meh.

As for why he doesn't do harder stuff on his albums, who knows? I personally think he likes all genres of rock, and I believe him when he said he did what he wanted on this album. One of my buddies asked him about his next album, and he told her he wouldn't be taking so long again, and that he really hoped to write it with his band. I wonder if he'll be allowed to, not sure.

I don't think we'll ever know the whole truth for years about why he does what he does on these albums. He's pretty loyal to RCA right now, so I highly doubt he'll say what's going on openly. Like I said, I think he likes the lighter stuff too, and was totally into doing his concept album. I like it, but I know a lot of people don't, so I guess it'll be interesting to hear what he does next.

What I don't think we'll hear is pre-Idol David - he's pretty adamant that Analog Heart was done at a certain time in his life that's over. That doesn't necessarily mean he's not going to rock harder in the future, but with rock allegedly "dying" on the radio these days, it's hard to say what he can or will do in order to get airplay. Weird thing is, this album is full of today's radio-friendly stuff, yet it's still not being played.

Sorry for the rant, but the music industry is nuts these days. Here in Chicago we lost our all-rock station - we have a few classic rock stations that mix in some new stuff, but our alt-rock and all-rock station closed a few months ago, and it's ridiculous that the third largest market in the U.S. had no rock representation. Couple that with the fact that the HAC station here is mostly dance music crap, and the guy is not getting played here at all.

Weird. Oh well, I like what I like, and I suspect most music fans are the same, whether their choice of music is played on mainstream radio or not.

Went to the Chicago show last night at the House of Blues. Carolina Liar couldn't play because the lead singer had to dash back home - his wife had gone into labor. But the rest of the band had a champagne toast on stage with David and his band since it was the last night they were on tour with David.

To make up for that, David decided to stay onstage longer. He has been averaging 14 songs per set, but last night we got 22 songs, including 5 covers. Those covers were Rock and Roll by Zeppelin, Here I Go Again by Whitesnake, Stockholm Syndrome by Muse, In The Meantime by Spacehog, and The Hand That Feeds by Nine Inch Nails. We also got a ton of his songs from both the first and latest album.